I officially ended my year of yes on 21 December 2016. I had chosen that date because that’s when the seasons change (autumn into winter for the northern hemisphere and spring into summer for the austral region).

And I totally forgot to say goodbye to the whole thing on here. A recap of things I can remember from then:

I went to a barbecue with about 40 friends on a whim.

I went to Córdoba, Argentina with a few friends and went hiking. My body hurt for an entire week.

I wound up having to give up my apartment because rent went up about 40% and tomorrow will be my first day with a roommate. It was a nice run. I hope I get this opportunity again someday.

2017 stuff too….

My phone was stolen on Super Bowl Sunday.

I applied for a job writing jokes and actually got it.

One thing that happened is that I feel compelled to keep saying yes to things that out of my comfort zone even though my year of yes ended a few months ago. I’ve read over and over again that it takes 21 days to build up new habits, so I can see why I’m having a hard time ending this streak. I actually feel compelled to challenge myself in various ways. I apply to jobs even if I feel imposter syndrome, I’ve been charging clients more because women tend to undercharge anyway, I’ve been speaking more Portuguese and Italian even though I’m not very confident in either language.

I wish I had blogged about more experiences, but the truth is that I was too busy enjoying the experience, getting angry, sad, and annoyed. Mostly I was annoyed.

A lot of these experiments are made for rich folks who have time and money to spend on “experiences” and being working class, I felt limited. As if I did things that weren’t spectacular. My one piece of advice for those who are working class but want to take part in experiments like these: just keep track of your personal growth. Don’t worry if you can’t afford the things you think you need to try just to make this “your year.” Don’t feel like long life experiments like this have to be a year long. One week, two or three are fine. Or don’t do things like this if you don’t want to. They say this type of discipline and commitment is for the strong, but in actuality it’s for the weak.

We have been censoring ourselves all our lives and needed to kick ourselves to live a little, but that’s ok too.

Even though I thought I had been over my crush for a few months now this weekend I saw him flirt with a friend of mine and I didn’t feel fazed. I realized then that I only missed the feeling of liking someone this much, of idealizing them this much and seeing all the good in them all the time. That’s when I realized that even though it didn’t work out, my ex-crush and I are now good friends. We hang out with mutual friends often and make each other life. Just like he met someone he likes through me, I realize that I may meet someone else as well…. maybe with his help, maybe without.

It’s beautiful to think about him and not feel heartbroken. It’s wonderful to think about him being happy with someone else and not feel sad.

I feel free.

I’ve also been working on practicing self-love and being authentic. I try to do this on a daily basis and it’s been a huge part of my year of yes: to do things authentically even if they make me uncomfortable.

I’ve written a lot about my health issues and must say I feel extremely insecure these days. My year of yes project has basically taken a hiatus because two days per week I’m too tired from my treatments to really want to do anything. I decided not to make major life decisions during this period and have decided I’m not going to date.

When you’re so unhealthy that you can’t even picture someone liking you, maybe it’s time to take a break. I was perusing the internet and found this poem and felt the last part applied to me. Part of dating and getting dates is knowing that someone approved enough of you to want to be seen with you in public, so when it doesn’t happen or you decide not to part take in this then you really do feel alone. Society treats 30-year old women harshly when they’re single, but I guess starting in your teens you already feel the burden of living alone in a world for couples.

I’m trying to just be happy with my life and keep up with this experiment the best way I can because I gave my word I would stick it out until December 21st of this year. I notice that single people complain about singleness but then complain about their boyfriends/girlfriends when they find them. I once mentioned that I’m trying to break my past patterns, and I used to be a constant complainer about being single/with someone. I feel that by not complaining right now I won’t complain if I ever do find that one person I like.

Maybe part of the reason why it’s so hard to accept others as they really are is that we don’t really accept ourselves as we really are. When you can do that it makes things easier… or this is just a theory I’m testing out at the moment.

One thing I said yes to several weeks ago was the planning of an art event here in Buenos Aires. Some of my friends have a hamburger project and I once curated an art show that was successful so I said I’d do this one. The other thing that makes me nervous is that I couldn’t find enough artists to participate so I decided to display some of my pictures from my activist past, such as these:

I started getting homesick for the US and getting tired of answering questions about who I think will win the US elections. I voted for Hillary Clinton at the US Embassy last week. I’m Not With Her but I’m just not with The Donald.

So that’s where I am now: organizing this art show, hoping it goes well, and trying to enjoy every day and what it brings despite how my health isn’t that great. I’m trying to just love me and be enough for me.

I’m making it a point not to go on second dates with people with whom I already have no chemistry.

I’ve got to follow my gut feeling when it comes to this chemistry thing….

So far this week has been ok. It’s nice to say yes to the few things that don’t take up too much of my energy and make me feel good. Plus, people say I’m funny. I’m not sure if it’s true or not but at this point even if people laughing at me and not with me I don’t mind so much because I love seeing their smiling faces.

I know this post makes no sense whatsoever but when I have less work I’ll elaborate on how I came to these moronic conclusions.

I’ve been saying yes to fewer things recently, but I can always seem to say yes to sleep. I’ve been doing my dental treatments and have really bad gag reflexes so on days when I have appointments I make my own juices or smoothies, and have coffee and water. I come home and eat whatever I think I can chew and then maybe pair that with an affordable glass of wine.

When you’re always hungry you start becoming angry and depressed all the time. I really do try hard to keep my mind positive but sometimes it just gets to me. Part of why I began this experiment was to lose my fear of men, but as I keep on going the fear keeps coming back: fear that guys won’t understand what’s wrong with me, fear that they will find me unattractive when I tell them, and fear that I might lose so much weight over the next few months that I’ll be too skinny.

I haven’t been thinking of men. I don’t really see any prospects, and I try to stay busy with friends. I’m trying to be happy, but there are days when I can tell I didn’t eat enough the day before because it’s hard for me to wake up. I try to enjoy sunny days and realize that there are worse things out there, but it’s not easy. Thankfully the friends I have told about this are understanding and supportive. Over the next few months I’ll have to cut back on expenses to pay for my dental treatments and get my blood tested consistently.

Traveling trips and really crazy adventures seem to be out now. I haven’t asked any guys out on a date, and it seems like my sadness hangs on my face like a bright billboard warning men that I’m too sad to go out with them–or at least that’s how it seems.

I do plan on learning new songs on the guitar though. For now, I’ve decided I’m going to nap once per day to get through work. I’m sure that will help as long as I go outside often as well.

I’m one of those people that always consistently flossed since I was a teenager and did whatever dentists recommended, but every since I was a kid I was diagnosed with gum disease. Most of my dentists would just try to shame me, tell me I have bad hygiene habits, and overall, I just paid someone to tell me that I need to “do better” even though I was already doing everything I could. In the next coming years, I would find out that this was due to a then undiagnosed genetic condition, because evolution is that crappy, and some of us (such as myself) didn’t evolve enough, apparently.

Getting treatment for gum disease is very expensive, especially when you start losing teeth, as I’m starting to. Thankfully I’m still in Argentina and this will save me a ton of money, implants are much cheaper and so is specialized dental care. My mother and grandmother had teeth problems and went through the same things, and my mother was always hoping that I hadn’t inherited her problems–but I did.

Ever since I was about 23-24 I haven’t been able to bite an apple or carrot, and I started to cut food into little pieces at that age. Right now several of my teeth are lose and I can only eat things I can’t chew, so last night at my 30th birthday party I took a big container of hummus and mutabal (baba ganoush) so I could eat. Thankfully the doctors in Argentina are very nice, and more research is available about people who might have gum diseases because of their genes (though as far as I can tell, more studies need to be conducted). So I feel better about how I’m being treated.

People don’t realize what a big deal eating is. Eating crunchy things, biting down on things, and even eating starchy or sticky things is a huge deal. I’m trying to figure out new ways to eat so that I’m getting enough nutrients. I’ve had treatments before, and generally I lose weight. In our image-obsessed culture people tend to give me compliments on this, but losing weight when you don’t intend to, or because you’re basically starting, isn’t fun.

Feeling this lightheaded, feeling confused, and being able to talk for limited periods is really exhausting. Not to mention that living with missing teeth (which I may have to do) is frowned upon, especially for women. The next few weeks I’ll probably be in a terrible mood. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to continue in my year of yes experiment as much as I could like because I’m in a terrible mood right now. I’m trying to be grateful that this isn’t something worse, but I don’t like having to use other people’s bad luck to feel better about the state of my health.